(Neg)Otium Veris

I have decided to take the final step in the poem, and what I now feel will be the only way the whole thing will work to capture the spirit of Dante. I’m going for pure terza rima – that is, ABA BCB CDC. It will be difficult, but I realized that since I already have the first and third line of every line rhyming, the only necessary chance will be the middle line of each preceding tercet. For example, here’s the first six lines in pure terza rima –

1      Thus speaks he in tears as the sails’ rigging’s loosed;
2      on Euboean beaches of Cumae they moor.
3      Turned prows toward the ocean; with hard-biting tooth

4      the fleet lies at anchor, whose sterns line the shore.
5      A cohort of youths on Hesperian sands
6      makes spirited sallies; for sparks they explore

I will spend most of Spring Break working on this revision, that is, the days I won’t be in Rome. Concerning that little trip, I have received abundant help in preparing for what will likely be one of the the best weeks of my life. I’d like to thank the family of Zev Eisenberg for providing detailed directions for some well-informed walking routes through the city and some helpful technology such as an iPod touch and a European power outlet convertor. I’d also like to thank my professors such as Michael Grillo for helping plan museum tours, and Elena Florey for teaching me some Italian last year. This should be an amazing experience, and you’ll read all about it on this blog. Stay tuned!

Ad Urbem Aeternam

I am very excited to announce that I have booked a flight and four nights in Rome itself during Spring break in March. As an aspiring Classical Historian I count this trip as necessary as a pilgrimage to Mecca is for a Muslim. I got a killer deal on Alitalia and a highly-rated hostel in the heart of the eternal city.

I will spend the bulk of my time studying the Roman ruins, mainly the Forum, Colosseum, columns, arches, bath complexes and stadia. I will also make a day trip to the Vatican. I’ll keep myself fed on the ancient Mediterranean triad: bread, wine and olive oil (and pizza too) and take plenty of photos.

This trip should be a dream come true. After this, I’ll have to pick between Athens and Constantinople (in my heart, it’s still called that).

Principia Excentrica

Stemming from an April Fools’ joke in which we translated part of Zev Eisenberg’s father’s website into Latin, I decided to make a more permanent contribution to the Avner the Eccentric franchise. So in a much-needed workout of my English-to-Latin skills, I rendered into Latin his 16 precepts of performance clowning, the Eccentric Principles:

I. Scurrae efficiendum est ut auditores sentiant atque spirent.
II. Omnes inhalant, sed plerique nostri ut exhalent monendi sunt.
II. Cogitatio et cerebrum corpori adligati sunt et quod adficunt. Mutatio tanta menti quanta corpori. Quae tanta corpori (id est, in spirando primum) quanta menti.
IV. Ne imperateve monstrate auditoribus quae putanda faciendaque sentienda.
V. Ne imperateve monstrate participibus quae putanda faciendaque sentienda. Ne indicate digito.
VI. Pondus alvo est. Servate abdomini inferiori locum singulum. Sustinete vigorem fluentem.
VII. Intentio vobis hostis, quae animae mentique corpori torporem effecerit.
VIII. Quae de spectaculo vestro sentiatis graviora quibus vero bonisve malis factis.
IX. Scurra auditores qui ordinibus sedeant et spatium conspiciant et spectaculum exspectent invenit. Quod primum per auditores complexos faciendum est.
X. Scurra mundum in spatio creat, ne creatum iam intret (scaena facta).
XI. Sitis pantomimi causa phantasiae creandae, non veritatis recreandae.
XII. Scurra ut ludum et praecepta cuius faciat petit, quae inde obsequienda.
XIII. Ne quaeriteve imperate auditoribus sensa aut cogita. Experiamini anima et invitate auditores ad responsum vestrum partiendum.
XIV. Sitis fascinati, non fascinantes.
XV. Omnibus totam vitam spirandum est, etiam in scaena.
XVI. Scurra scaenam pro operi, non risibus, ascendit. Si risus sint, interpellationes curandae sunt.

Click here for the original English. The Eccentric Clown Principles are also in Spanish, Catalan, Hebrew, Portugese and Italian (ancient and modern…).

As for the blog launch, I’ve gotten great feedback from profs and peers alike. I’m even more excited to keep the scope of this project as ambitious as I can muster. The comments on ZephyrBlog were particularly humorous:

Manifesto Infernale

By the encouragement of Dr. Kristina Passman and the modeling of my esteemed colleague James Brophy, I have created a blog for my Honors undergraduate thesis project at the University of Maine. As an homage to the supreme language of Latin and my two favorite texts, Vergil’s Aeneid and Dante’s Inferno, I intend to unite the three in a full English translation of Aeneid Book VI into terza rima, the rhyme and meter employed in the Divina Commedia. In addition I shall write an extensive commentary, exploring the religious, philosophical and literary influences of both poets, especially one upon the other. My goal is to complete the project by the end of 2010. 

The purpose of “Vergil’s Inferno” is to explore and explicate the influence of Vergil’s vision of the afterlife upon Dante, and thus the prevailing concepts of damnation and deliverance. I will exercise my mastery of the Latin language, my understanding of poetry, and my deep fascination with the classical world and the debt to it the modern world fails to pay. 

How a pagan poet created a Christian Hell….

What you’ll see here is all my progress that’s fit to print, both as a journal and a exhibition to general interest. I will share translations, research texts, and anything relating to the project or my classical studies here at UMaine. So please show your support and feedback to keep me at a high pace. Leave comments, criticisms, libels, you name it. If you’re reading it then it was worth my time.

Learn more about me, and my idols Vergil and Dante right here on the site. And please check my associates’ blogs to the right. Thank you.